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Spoken Bones

A DI Fenella Sallow Crime Thriller, Book 1

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Spoken Bones

By: N.C. Lewis
Narrated by: Deborah Balm
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About this listen

This dark secret could finally break her…

Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow is obsessive about her work and driven by her own demons. When the body of a retired artist is discovered atop the blackened embers of the town bonfire, the community is rocked to the core.

It falls to DI Fenella Sallow and her team to find out how she came to be there. In her 50s, the veteran detective inspector thought she had seen it all. But behind the curtained windows and closed doors of the idyllic Cumbria coastal setting lurks pure evil.

Fenella must confront her dark past. Haunted by the unsolved case of a missing girl, she knows it is a race against time. Can she stop this death from slipping through her fingers, too?

Before long, it becomes disturbingly clear that the killer is playing a twisted game and will do anything to conceal the terrible truth of what happened on the beach on Bonfire Night.

Set against the backdrop of beautiful coastal Cumbria, an ancient land of legend, folklore, and myth, Spoken Bones is the first book in the Detective Inspector Fenella Sallow series.

This pause-resisting crime thriller will keep you hooked until the very end. If you like police procedurals with psychologically complex characters and shocking twists, then you’ll love Spoken Bones.

Perfect for fans of L.J. Ross, J.D. Kirk, Simon McCleave, Stuart MacBride, Matt Brolly, Angela Marsons, Alex Smith, J.M. Dalgliesh, J.E. Mayhew, David J. Gatward, T.G. Reid, Jack Gatland, Robert F. Barker, and J.R. Ellis.

©2021 N.C. Lewis (P)2025 N.C. Lewis
Crime Crime Thrillers Detective Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Thriller & Suspense Women Sleuths Women's Fiction Thriller Exciting

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All stars
Most relevant  
I really tried to like this title, and there were some good features, but I just couldn’t get into it. The characters are a bit stereotype. There were the middle aged female detective, the one who drank to much and the one who had family problems. Then there were the eccentric coroner and the whizz in the lab. It got to the stage where I didn’t care about any of them and just wanted to get it over with. Not a good feeling for a book really.

Disappointing

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I really struggled to engage with this book, Found the narration very forgettable and almost flat and didn’t hold my attention. The story then became harder to follow, the characters were hard to decipher one from another as there was very little difference voice wise during narration to distinguish them. I so wanted to engage with this story as I hoped I had found a new author to enjoy. May have to try a reading version of this book tho see if it was just the narrator I found disappointing.

I will try and persevere with book 2 as I like to give an author a fair chance to engage my interest, hoping for better narration but will see how it goes.

Struggled to retain interest

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The readers voice did not like it put me off listening. Who have preferred a man

The voice

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I would possibly have downloaded the whole series but I am thankful I did not. The narration, as far as I am concerned, is amateurish and extremely difficult to listen to. As a life long lover of Cumbria and the Lake District I would be upset to be portrayed like this.

Poor narration

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Ive seen other terrific reviews but I found this book a struggle. For a huge part it’s just character after character but I didn’t feel drawn into their lives. By the time the only twist does happen, I had lost all interest and just wanted to finish it. I wouldn’t recommend this book, sorry

A struggle

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Whilst I can see that this may be a good detective series, I’m afraid I won’t be listening to another one as I found the narration style quite irritating. I found the different accents of the characters to be quite weak. There was one character in the book who was supposed to have a Glaswegian accent, but it was spoken with an Irish accent. I found the whole tone to be very monotonous. to my mind almost every character in the book sounded bored.

Narration annoyed me

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This story seems to me to be an accurate description of real police procedure. There are no brilliant super-sleuths just a persistent searcher for truth. I am hungry for more Fenella Sallow.

A wonderful read

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kept me interested till the end with a good lead on to next book in the series

gripping

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But if a struggle . Too many twists got a bit lost , too many possible suspects then a new one did it . Don't know if I missed clues or it was thrown in at end. Will try another book to find out.

First nc lewis

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spoken bones was the 1st in the series, I am looking forward to listening to the rest in this series. book one was well written and beautifully read.

will look for the next in the series

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